Terlipressin Induced Severe Hyponatremia

Abstract

Terlipressin is a vasopressin analogue used for its vasoconstrictor effect in the treatment of variceal bleeding. Despite its good safety profile compared to vasopressin, some adverse reactions may occur during its use – e.g. hyponatremia. We describe a case of a cirrhotic patient with active variceal bleeding treated during two separate hospitalizations with terlipressin. In both drug treatment periods, severe laboratory hyponatremia developed. After terlipressin discontinuation, mineral disbalance corrected rapidly. Positive dechallenge and rechallenge corresponding to the drug administration schedule confirms the causality between terlipressin administration and hyponatremia. Hyponatremia was preceded with substantial fluid retention in both episodes. In this case report we want to highlight the need for fluid balance monitoring immediately after first terlipressin dose, which may individually predict the patient risk for the development of hyponatremia as other risk factors have rather limited predictive value in real clinical settings.